A Stable Beginning: The Glass Castle ~ a TOS review

Friday, June 10, 2016

The Glass Castle ~ a TOS review

I am always happy to get a new book to add to our ever growing literature collection, especially since nowadays it’s sometimes hard to find good, clean fiction written for kids. While most of my children take after me and enjoy a great book to read, they all love to be read aloud too. We enjoy mystery stories so when we had the opportunity to review The Glass Castle by Trisha White Priebe and Jerry B. Jenkins from Shiloh Run Press presented itself I jumped at the chance.

The Glass Castle {Shiloh Run Press Review}

You see, when this review was offered I read the entire first chapter online and was enthralled and drug into the scene. It was powerful story about a girl named Avery, who is just thirteen and she has been kidnapped on her birthday. Once she realizes what is going on it’s too late because she has already be taken hostage inside the castle of the King. This King is growing very old and his “new” wife that wants to make sure that her child will be the one and only heir to the throne once he is gone. But, there is a catch. The Kings first wife did indeed produce an heir to the throne, a son. But where is he? Is he even still alive? That is the question that has left me on the edge of my seat wanting to know more about this girl named Avery and her 3-year-old brother, Henry, and her band of underground friends Kate, Tuck, and Kendrick who set out to find out the truth.

The new wife wants to make sure that this son is not alive and has hatched a simple plan in her mind to alleviate this little “problem” of her child not being sole heir to the kingdom. Her solution is to dispose of all the 13 year olds in the kingdom. These kids will not go away without a fight though and are trying to foil the queen’s plot because they have discovered something that could very well blow the kingdom apart. They just need to find a way to not get caught!

This story was penned by Trisha White Priebe and the famous author Jerry B. Jenkins. Trisha is a wife and mom who loves everything water polo. She is also the assistant to Jerry B. Jenkins who is the renowned author of more than 175 books, including the bestselling series, Left Behind. Mr. Jenkins is the former vice president for publishing at the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago and is currently a member of the board of trustees.

I read this book aloud to my younger three daughters, aged 13, 9, and 6. It was probably over my youngest daughter’s head but she did recognize the familiar story line that is similar to the Bible story of Moses. She happily played while I read aloud. My 9 year old enjoyed the story! It was mysterious and suspenseful without being too scary and had positive Christian character traits that I like my children to know about, along with a strong girl and boy role model. Some of the parts I did not care for. Specifically, the “attitudes” presented at times. I know kids have “opinions” but because I am knee deep in adjusting ~~attitudes~~ opinions at home it is not something that I wanted to promote. Fixing it was easy enough for me, as I was able to just add in another word or change the sentence around. Not the ideal or best way, but for my younger daughters it worked.

Because my 13 year-old, who is not a big reader, trains for gymnastics during the daytime hours, she only caught a few chapters that I read aloud here and there. She is currently reading the book over the summer and I am hoping that it will help her catch a spark for reading especially since she likes mystery books. I have her take the book to the gym to read during break and school hours. When she is at home I have her read a few pages aloud to me if she didn’t finish her reading at the gym. The best part is that I already know what happens so we can have a discussion about what she has read each day.

Overall, I give this book two thumbs up for great middle grade fiction. I would recommend the book but don’t just take my word for it. See what my CrewMates thought of this book by clicking the banner below. I know that we are eagerly awaiting the release of the second book of the series this fall.